What is Digg?23 Comments
- JonLatane, on 12/20/2008, -14/+37In other news, future iPhones will have drastically reduced battery life.
- EasySwitch, on 12/21/2008, -5/+18No. This is about moving the computation to the processor that can handle it most efficiently. As a result, you'd have improved battery life.
- normalkid, on 12/20/2008, -2/+11ya'll realize that OpenCL is a general standard now, not just Apple. I think the iPhone will support OpenCL eventually, but not because Imagination tech is hiring OpenCL developers.
- Invid, on 12/21/2008, -0/+8The iPhone already has the hardware. OpenCL is a software framework. I don't see why we couldn't see this after a firmware update.
- ParisSeth, on 12/20/2008, -3/+8This is for a future AppleTV Gaming device. iPhones don't need anywhere near this kind of graphics power.
http://9to5mac.com/ARM-for-Apple-TV - Invid, on 12/21/2008, -0/+5As opposed to the 6 firmware updates that I've gotten since I got my iPhone? Those brought in a lot of money too. /s
Besides, by supporting the iPhone as they have, Apple has made me confident in investing in software from their store, and cemented my desire to upgrade to another better iPhone in the future. Definitely better treatment than I've ever gotten from any other phone manufacturer. Not all profits are directly realized. - solidus636, on 12/21/2008, -1/+6Of course it doesn't need it. It's be awesome to have though...
- CptnEvilStomper, on 12/21/2008, -1/+6"That is because unlike Apple, Linux and MS machines have been open to having all kinds of gpu card choices (inlcuding Nvidias Tesla system)..."
Apple uses Intel's EFI instead of BIOS, and NVIDIA never got around to making a Tesla card that works with EFI. With other NVIDIA cards you can usually add some EFI strings or flash the ROM to make it work in a Mac, but there's no other card even close to the Tesla so there's not much chance of successfully hacking it. Hopefully NVIDIA will get off their asses when OpenCL becomes more popular or when Microsoft finally makes a 64-bit OS that isn't complete ***** (since they refuse to include EFI support in any 32-bit version of Windows).
As for OpenCL vs. CUDA, OpenCL is a programming language and CUDA is an architecture (ATI has their own version called Stream). NVIDIA and ATI both provide their own SDKs, but each only works with the hardware it was designed for. OpenCL is a programming language (based on C) that works with both CUDA and Stream, so programmers don't have to write and maintain different sets of code for different video cards. Apple isn't playing catch-up, they're providing an open standard to replace a set of proprietary and mutually-incompatible development platforms. - jrm125, on 12/21/2008, -3/+4So this wouldn't apply to current iPhones with a firmware update? It requires additional hardware I imagine?
- mrBitch, on 12/22/2008, -0/+1@sdipaola RE: " apple does not easily co-exist with higher end (and generally open choice of most) GPU cards. "
You idiot, this is nvidia's issue, not Apple's issue:
"Apple uses Intel's EFI instead of BIOS, and NVIDIA never got around to making a Tesla card that works with EFI." - melllvar37, on 12/21/2008, -2/+3it could.. if you charge for it :-)
- ltethe, on 12/21/2008, -1/+2sez you.
My desktop eventually got replaced by my laptop, and my laptop got replaced by my iTouch.
Throw a pico projector on my iTouch, and I'd love to run Crisis on it in a few years. - uprise78, on 12/22/2008, -2/+3Ummm...the reason you see drastically reduced battery life is because you are using a "3D-intensive application" as you said. What on earth does that have to do with OpenCL offloading some CPU work to a processor that is MORE EFFICIENT at doing the calculations it gets handed?
I won't even touch your last two sentences... - Zippo, on 12/21/2008, -1/+1The iPhone has certainly set up new bars for handheld gaming. After the DSi, I would be very surprised if the next handheld Nintendo (or PSP) doesn't have a multi-touch screen and motion sensing.
- robbob, on 12/21/2008, -1/+1Future iPhones will be the future
- JonLatane, on 12/21/2008, -2/+11) It's a joke. Obviously the whole reason for OpenCL is that the GPU can do some operations more efficiently, but...
2) As a current-gen iPod touch user (AT&T isn't for me, unfortunately), I can say that when using 3D-intensive applications (e.g., those that use the GPU more than the regular interface), battery life is drastically reduced.
Personally, I don't see much reason for the iPhone to use OpenCL, aside from physics applications in games. Once it develops into a more general-purpose machine that probably won't be the case, but OpenCL doesn't have many uses in the mobile market now. - sdipaola, on 12/22/2008, -2/+0"As for OpenCL vs. CUDA"
Never tried to pit them against each other. What I said was CUDA was what made NVidia the strong leader in the area to date and that CUDA will soon be "tweaked" to work with the "openCL standard making Nvidia an even big player here.
"Apple isn't playing catch-up" ...
I believe Apple is playing catch because of the hardware issue which is that apple (as you have agreed) does not easily co-exist with higher end (and generally open choice of most) GPU cards.
My main point is openCL is a big deal for the future, but I find most media stories ( like this and the one before on DIGG) confuse that real news with since it came in as a standard through apple that somehow it immediately is some kind of apple speed buzzword story which as I try and explain because of hardware reasons seems not to be the case. It is in fact a story that GPUs are coming in as incredible multi-threaded solutions to graphics and other specialized processing fields all thought most of those benefits are so far in the high end Nvidia solutions on MS and Linux boxes. - sdipaola, on 12/21/2008, -8/+4Again open CL is now a standard, with linux and ms based systems having the most experience utilizing multi-parallel gpu (multi-threaded) processing to date. That is because unlike Apple, Linux and MS machines have been open to having all kinds of gpu card choices (inlcuding Nvidias Tesla system) rather than only having the one that apple customers are forced to use on each apple system. All the current GPU parallel processing computers are still MS and Linux based - and are used in many application spaces and at universities to make cheaper supercomputers ( google gpu supercomputer). While the openCL standard came from apple, which is great, they hold no special advantage and in general are playing catch up in the multi GPU processing game. That said the leaders are not MS but NVidia with their CUDA based systems ( which the rumor mill can be tweaked to be part of the openCL standard). It is just that MS and Linux box allow for open Nvida support including their new GPU supercomputer cards. Whereas on an apple you are stuck with one type of Nvidia card and on some machines ( laptop pros) a pretty buggy one.
- specialK16, on 12/21/2008, -6/+2Oh yeah...
wait, what?????? - heinzfischer, on 12/21/2008, -7/+1brings no money
- tux11, on 12/21/2008, -8/+1open gl should and probaly will go mobile but apple will probaly keep on iphone made the touch device.
- anizzle, on 12/21/2008, -9/+1I IMAGINE the iPhone will cost a guap
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